1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to feature score mapping and visualization in medical images and, more particularly, to a system and method for scoring morphological features of medical image data for display.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of computers for the acquisition and generation of medical image data is well known. The use of computers to analyze medical image data is also well known. Computer aided diagnostic (CAD) systems are often used to analyze medical images to thereby identify unusual features. For example, CAD systems are to extract a set of morphological features from an image or set of images. These features are fed into a classifier processed to produce an indication of areas that are likely to be deemed malignant. For example, in mammography, CAD systems that have suspicious morphology are marked by an indicator on a visual display. However, the reason for these areas having suspicious morphology is often hidden from the user. That is, while a region may be marked by an indicator, the reasons underlying the decision to mark that region as suspicious are not readily discernable to the user. This has the disadvantage of not letting the user know why the area was suspicious. For example, it is unknown whether the area is suspicious because of shape, margin, or some combination of features. Therefore, it can be appreciated that there is a significant need for a system and method that provides feature score mapping and visualization to indicate morphological features and relevance to a user. The present invention provides this, and other advantages as will be apparent from the following detailed description and accompanying figures.